Server Capacity is a Distraction

[Camarro DaMortas]

Everybody is talking about server capacity. Players want to know what went wrong with the advertised server capacity. SV are working to increase server capacity. But in fact, server capacity is irrelevant. The concurrent player limit of MO is set not by the technical specifications of the servers and the software they are running, but by the game design itself.

This is a mental exercise you can play yourself, maybe while you sit in that queue. I am not saying my numbers are right. You can come up with numbers of your own. But I'm sure you'll see that it doesn't matter if the servers can handle 10K concurrent players, or 100K - Myrland can't.

Here we go ... How many players can Myrland comfortably hold?

A bank can hold 40 players.
You can have another 20 in the graveyard.
Another 20 are using the vendors, the library and the stables.
20 are wandering aimlessly around town or casting spurt on themselves.
That's a total of 100 in a town.

How many towns? If we are generous and include the lawless camps, we have... about 13?
That's a total of 1,300 players in all towns.

Let's assume that for every player in a town, there is another player in the wild gathering resources, taming horses, fighting PVP battles, ganking people or getting ganked.

2,600 players. Let's be generous again and add 400 doing something we haven't thought of to make a total of 3,000. And that is it. 3,000 concurrent players. That's the limit set by the game and map design.

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Of course, this isn't rocket science. Many players have been saying this for months. SV must have done the same sums. So how did we end up with the current fiasco? I'm not here to make accusations, but I'll simply set out the two possibilities I can see, and that other people are suggesting:

The cynical explanation
1/ Hype the game and sell as many copies as possible
2/ Give the impression of working to resolve problems by fiddling with the servers, even though you know it is irrelevant
3/ Wait until the excess players get fed up and leave
4/ Run MO2 with the remaining 2,000 to 3,000 concurrent players, at which point the problems disappear
5/ Excess revenue safely in bank

The generous explanation
1/ SV thought the servers and the Myrland map might handle 5,000 concurrent players
2/ SV thought they would get sales equating to 5,000 concurrent players
3/ Nobody knows what will happen on release, and in the event SV were out by a factor of 2 on both estimates. They now have double the concurrent players at 10K, with the game only able to handle half the numbers, 2.5K

Whatever the explanation, the fact is that ...
if MO2 is is going to be a single persistent world
if MO2 is going to run on the current Myrland map
The game design limit is somewhere in the order of 2,000 to 3,000 concurrent players.

 

[Rhias]

Whatever the explanation, the fact is that ...
if MO2 is is going to be a single persistent world
if MO2 is going to run on the current Myrland map
The game design limit is somewhere in the order of 2,000 to 3,000 concurrent players.

Did you read what Henrik wrote in the Discord Announcement channel a few days ago?
They will add several Myrland instances for now, but you will be only able to build on the main one.
That's only an interim solution. They plan to add an additional continent and hope that the playerbase speards out.

Edit:
And when they add more TC structures player/guilds will build player-citiys, and live out of them instead of the main towns.

 

[Tashka]

These are just numbers you picked that add nicely to what you're trying to tell. The world can easily support at least twice as much as what you're saying. Morin Khur is underpopulated, Toxai is a ghost town, some dungeons are barely visited, there's also housing etc. 2x players would be a little tight but Myrland can support them all until new continents arrive so server capacity is def a problem.

 

[King Christof]

All of the cities I have been too I have seen around 100-125 players max (Most southern towns much less) excluding Tindrem which was much more populated than all the rest (I would guess around 300 for Tindrem). When I went to the capital it felt HUGE considering how many people were there. The numbers you put seem to make sense to me, however there really is no way to prove your theory unless you have access to places or information I do not. Just off of my experience traveling I would agree from a hypothetical stand point. Also worth mentioning the roads are basically barren at all areas except for outside Morin Khur and Tindrem.

 

[Raknor]

Logistically speaking the numbers are way higher than what you make them, Tindrem and MK alone could field 1k players each without it being a nightmare. Server capacity is an issue.

 

[Slize]

These are just numbers you picked that add nicely to what you're trying to tell. The world can easily support at least twice as much as what you're saying. Morin Khur is underpopulated, Toxai is a ghost town, some dungeons are barely visited, there's also housing etc. 2x players would be a little tight but Myrland can support them all until new continents arrive so server capacity is def a problem.

I think the in town numbers are actually quite good - like bank, even now is absolute clusterfuck to get into bank because a lot of ppl are there with horses, you are getting blocked, or you cannot access bank - and its natural that ppl use horses in bank because you often transport heavy cargo that you cannot move with so there's no other choice. And its similar problem with all commonly used buildings ( butchery, crafting) and many of them are placed in small huts) - only Tndrem and MK are bigger and have more bankers but its still cluster with current amount of players. I think i have to agree that towns are not really designed to hold more ppl

There is a reason why Toxai and Hyllspeia are ghost towns, there is absolute no benefit in living there and access to hunting grounds is terrible

Another thing is amount of AI spawns, even now you very often need to contest camps that can hold maximum 3-4 ppl, otherwise you kill too fast and you just sit there doing nothing. So in many hunting sites you will more often fight for resources than actually gather them, which will hurt solo/small guilds most

 

[ArcaneConsular]

Logistically speaking the numbers are way higher than what you make them, Tindrem and MK alone could field 1k players each without it being a nightmare. Server capacity is an issue.

Proof or nah?

 

[xtort]

If SV manages to kick the AFK people the queue problem is 60% resolved. i.e. 10 minutes AFK and you are kicked out.

I see hundreds of people AFKing in towns, hence increasing the queue size.

Also, the game doesn't even kick people who are AFK and doing nothing in game. You don't need to do anything to prevent AFK. I tried and that worked.

 

[Emdash]

@ Cama I agree with your assessment more or less. It's probably a bit more than that because people will be living in keeps, out of keeps, and there will be pvp happening in a healthy game. But probably 3k is a good number. 5k is crowded. The map is too big, though, as many have said, but this can be fixed, hopefully, with content. They really need to add more camps, mobs, pickables, systems, etc. Imagine once all of these people start placing houses, the world is going to look AWFUL. It's going to be like running thru New York City instead of Nave. BLEEEH.

That's why I said 'fuk yo vision' and just do multi servers. Let the '1' servers be the main 'one world' servers and everyone on them can pretend they are the only world. For me, it doesn't matter. It did matter, but I've quickly changed my mind when I've noticed many impossibilities, both with server load and things like what you said. I really feel that a set of servers without TC would be really cool, too, because the world is gonna be SO SHITTED when all of the TC is placed. They made the world bigger, probably, to accommodate all of the possible TC, but it's still going to be ugly as hell. Obviously, that would require ruleset changes, too, but digress...

Main point, you are right. YOU SO RIGHT, YOU DUNNO HOW RIGHT YOU ARE. Where do we go from here, tho, is the question! I certainly don't wanna be pigeonholed into some 3rd world continent because I can't get into the main one. haha.

 

[Raknor]

Proof or nah?

Proof of what? Have you never been to Tindrem or MK? You don't think they logistically fit 1k players (sure, throw some more bankers in there but its not like they're short for room)?

 

[Camarro DaMortas]

I really value the input here, so let me reply to a couple of points.

Did you read what Henrik wrote in the Discord Announcement channel a few days ago? They will add several Myrland instances for now, but you will be only able to build on the main one. That's only an interim solution. They plan to add an additional continent and hope that the playerbase spreads out.

I read all the announcements, but we need to be clear about what is meant by "continents" because it is two different things. First of all, in the longer term, one or more extra continents (eg. Sarducca) will be added. They will run on separate servers, but will be a full part of the single online world called Nave. They will share the same characteristics and lore. That is great, and it will indeed increase the game capacity, but we have no timescale for it. Given the track record of SV (we know it's a small company) it could be months or even years away. It doesn't have any bearing on the current problems.

Secondly, in the short term, SV are putting in place what they have called continents, but they are simply instances of Myrland. They don't allow building so they are not part of the persistent world. I can see why SV are doing it - to keep people occupied and give them something better than a queue - but they solve nothing. It's like giving the kids a colouring book to keep them quiet while they queue up at the funfair. As soon as you reach the rollercoaster, the colouring book goes in the bin. Once these instances are shut down, the capacity of the original map is unchanged.

These are just numbers you picked that add nicely to what you're trying to tell.

Yes of course. If my numbers contradicted my argument I wouldn't have put them forward! But I still defend those numbers. The important facilities like banks and graveyards impose a hard limit on the map capacity, and if anything I think I was a little on the generous side towards SV. I think a reasonable capacity for the map in terms of game design is probably around 2,000 concurrent.

Have you never been to Tindrem or MK? You don't think they logistically fit 1k players (sure, throw some more bankers in there but its not like they're short for room)?

You are right, Tindrem is massive, but it is mainly unused space. I could possibly fit 1,000 people in my house, but with only one bathroom it would get pretty unpleasant pretty quick. You just can't get more than maybe 40 characters (plus horses) into a bank, and it imposes a hard limit on the population. Add more bankers? Yes, you are 100% right. And Emdash said "... this can be fixed, hopefully, with content. They really need to add more camps, mobs, pickables, systems, etc." I agree with all this. Lots more facilities in the towns, lots more content outside the towns, the ability to build temporary camps, and so on. These are all things that you quite rightly say will increase the map capacity - but they should have been in place before release. Let's face it, enough MO1 vets and MO2 beta testers have been telling SV for long enough. It will take a long time for SV to add these things, and by that time the problem will probably have been fixed simply by the numbers leaving MO.

 

[Favonius Cornelius]

Honestly I feel like they underestimated the amount of immediate interest they would get on the first day. You would think they would know based on number of sales. Things are built on some kind of notion that a lot of people would loiter in Haven for a while. Rather, every last veteran that played MO1 showed up and immediately went to Myrland in confidence (like me).

I was not there for MO1 release, but as far as I know it was not as big as MO2 release, someone correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Albanjo Dravae]

I agree to a certain degree, theres just a handfull of cities but this is supposed to change with TC meanwhile Will be crowded af, and i feel ya khurite small towns are damn too small, also meduli some nasty ass tiny camps, i expected the khurite towns to be ay least a little more Big and advanced like a near future from MO1.
Graveyards and creature spawns can barely hold and theres too little content and much space. Will eventually add up but meanwhile shits empty.